Definition of Class Depends on Your Classification

An emeritus professor of geography at the University of
Washington has posited an interesting look at “class” in the
greater Puget Sound region, sectioning off whole communities as
upper, middle or lower class, in a recent blog posting on Crosscut.

Regardless of any potential egalitarian notions you may have
about living in a classless society, the truth is humans have a
long and storied history of class in our varied cultures that is
impossible to deny. When you consider yourself “rich” or “poor” or
somewhere in between, you have just categorized yourself into a
class.

Obviously, one could take an individual area — such as Gig
Harbor — and parse it down to specific neighborhoods and come up
with a much more diverse picture of “class” ratings that would
literally run the gamut from wealthy to poor. But I don’t believe
it was Dr. Morrill’s intent to sub-classify individual cities so
much as to grossly classify the greater Puget Sound region as a
whole.

He places the waterfront and view sections of the harbor up
there with the crusty likes of Bainbridge Island and Magnolia — heady, latte-driven,
SUV-laden, individualist-minded communities indeed. What is
slightly more unsettling is his take of the “rural fringe” of
Pierce County as distinctly
lower class. I don’t take exception with his assessment so much so
because he clumsily lumps the decidedly upscale Canterwood in the
fringe. I take exception because he includes my humble spread as
definitively lower class.

A couple of parentheticals beg to be added here. First off, when
moving to Gig Harbor in 2004 (and coming from the bovine rich
region of Lynden — a forthrightly rural area of
Whatcom County three hours to the north), many folks we knew
remarked how we were going upscale, the reputation of Gig Harbor
being what it is in comparison to our humble Lynden digs. By and
large this was true. Yes, Lynden has its share of large, classy
homes, but nothing to rival the looming opulence of the harbor’s
many gated cul de sacs.

Secondly, when Morrill uses the phrase “rural fringe,” I picture
him thinking more in terms of Monroe, Eatonville or Graham than the unincorporated county
surrounding the Gig Harbor city limits. Even classifying Key Peninsula lower class is like
using a chain saw to paint the Mona Lisa. There’s no doubt the KP
has its fair share of backwoods trailers with blocked up 4x4s
littering the yard, but it also boasts some exquisite homes and
properties that defy any casual definition of the Key as lower
class.

My first reaction to being labeled lower class was to sniff with
indignation and cast immediate aspersions to Prof. Morrill’s
Ravenna home (actually, I have
no idea where he lives, but having once occupied a hovel in
Ravenna, it is an easy target for me). But then it got me to
thinking.

We don’t have anything near the income most of our GH friends
and acquaintances do. Both of us working in the field of
journalism, the combined salary of both my wife and I couldn’t even
equal the same number of digits of those individuals who work in
the Boeing and Microsoft worlds. While those we know routinely jet
off to Cancun and Maui for Winter Break, Spring Break and Taking a
Break Break, we spend our kids’ downtime around the house trying to
keep their boredom from erupting into WWF affairs. We both drive
high-mileage vehicles that threaten to explode at any given moment,
a splurge for us is a family dinner at Spiros and we’ve only been to the
Uptown Cinema once since it
opened.

Post Script: Just for the record, Morrill takes a decidedly dim
view of Tacoma, saying: “… Lower class areas include traditional
zones of mixed housing, industry, and transport, as in south
Seattle, Everett, Bremerton, Auburn, and especially
Tacoma” (italics added). That’s a whole ‘nother can of worms
unto itself, which, in the interests of staying on topic, I won’t
tackle here.

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One thought on “Definition of Class Depends on Your Classification”

If a Gig Harbor family lives in a beautiful $800,000 home with 10 landscaped acres, a pool, and 5,000 square feet, yet owes the bank more than half it’s value … if they are paying off two shiny new cars worth more than $40,000 each … if they have three or more maxed out credit cards … are they truly in a higher class than the family in the $300,000 home, with two older but paid off cars, and one credit card with a small balance on it?

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About This Blog

Gig Harbor, nestled in the northwest corner of Pierce County, snugly between Tacoma and Bremerton, is fast shedding its small-town demeanor as people seeking to escape the hectic pace, congested traffic and high cost of living in the big city continue to “discover” the fishing village in the harbor. With the influx of population, Gig Harbor continues to morph and develop, coming of age — as it were — as it defines its place among the many communities that dot the waters up and down Puget Sound. Kitsap Sun Special Sections Managing Editor Ric Hallock (whose responsibilities include Gig Harbor Life), lives in Gig Harbor and finds that reason enough to blog on living, breathing and spending money in the Maritime City.